Public sentiment is that its best to leave 80 million Americans unconnected to "high speed" broadband

While
it's hard to put an exact number on how many Americans
have no internet
coverage, there are still some regions of the country in which less
than 5 percent of the population has access to the internet.
Depending on how you define "high speed", over
80 million Americans, or about a quarter of the population, have
no access to the high speed broadband that the modern web relies on
so heavily.

Interestingly, a public poll from the Pew
Institute indicates that the majority of Americans aren't very
concerned with pushing better coverage for these individuals.
The phone survey (which would only be conducted via landline phones) asked 2,252 adults (aged 18 and older) whether
expanding affordable broadband should be a top priority for the
government and 53 percent of those polled responded "No".

In
total, 26 percent said the government should play no part in pushing
out high-speed internet; 27 percent indicated they didn't care if it
did, but that it was "not too important"; 30 percent said
it was important, and 11 percent said it should be
a top priority.

The
poll, which can be found here,
also offered other interesting results -- for example, growth in
internet use among African Americans is outpacing that of white
Americans.

Aaron Smith, author of the Pew Internet Project's
report, comments,
"A debate has arisen about the role of government in stepping in
to ensure availability to high-speed Internet access for all
Americans. The majority think not, and the surprise is that
non-users are the least inclined to think government has a role in
the spread of broadband."

The Federal Communications
Commission -- led by appointees of U.S. President Barack Obama -- has
made it clear that it thinks that broadband access should be
a top priority. It's in the process of deploying a scheme to
offer high-speed 100
Mbps internet to 100M U.S. homes and to extend cable
coverage to areas that currently cost to much to deploy to (according
to the telecommunication companies).

If the recent poll is any
indication, the FCC's plan may prove unpopular.

The
debate over internet coverage isn't just a U.S. one, though.
Internationally, the level of coverage, freedom of information,
and net
neutrality are hotly debated issues. Finland recently
propelled the debate to the forefront when it legislated broadband
internet as an
essential human right.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

I think the REA was great. We need internet access in some usable form in all areas of the country just as we need electricity. The problem is that the uneducated public could easily be swayed through presentation of this poll, especially could be based on location of residence.

Nobody considers the business requirements these days for online connectivity, and most people don't know just how neglected us coverage is compared to other countries. People take for granted their internet connections and the ones who don't? aren't online to bitch about it.

This poll just in! 92% of individuals in somalia believe food and water delivery should be top priority with the government. Individuals in california posted drastically different numbers. Researchers are still stumped.

thats just because in hollywood nobody eats. I just want to start whipping hamburgers every time a model yawns and hope for a direct hit before their ribcage tans like tiger stripes from the shadows in the depth.